cheap controled stobes

topic posted Sat, April 19, 2008 - 2:32 AM by  offlinewrite_guy

hello
For my short film...

I’m trying to duplicate the effects of "Lightning strikes units" in a budget. If you don't know what that is cool. But if you have watched any David lynch films and the actor is bathed in a flashing strobey light that is controlled this is them. A simple strobe light pulses to fast and is no good. The before mentioned LS units cost way too much to rent for an artist of my paltry means. It’s a little off topic but I have seen some wacky stuff for cars perhaps that’s a way to go? Any help thanks

Duane
posted by:
write_guy
Canada
  • I have played around with surplus flash units from disposable cameras, $2 from All Electronics. I soldered the 2 active leads of a L401E3 triac across the switch and triggered the gates with a Picaxe microcontroller. Had visions of a cheap, controllable 8-flash unit for night photography but haven't gotten it together yet.
    Be careful handling the flash units, they develop >400V on a big capacitor even though powered by 1 AA battery. I also found that >3V kills them fast.

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